A courtyard house is a common occurrence in Zagreb and it participates in a kind of nostalgic way in creating the identity of the town whose centre is made of straight urban stretches and of less visible, finer and loose fabric, filling internal courtyards and looking at the rear sides of more representative buildings. These remnants in an urban environment, the inversions of a conservative, planned perception of urbanity have escaped control and there has been formed there a kind of anti-urban collage of palaeo-industry, traditional crafts, small green oases, non-defined places of almost rural character which brings a special kind of vitality into the town. The courtyards have proved to be surprisingly resistant to change due to fragmented ownership rights, urban regulations and complications related to larger interventions.